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The Week in Review: GSK Buys Out China Vaccine JV Partner

publication date: Jun 18, 2011
 | 
author/source: Richard Daverman, PhD
Deals and Transactions

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) is planning to take one of its China vaccine JVs entirely in-house. The company will pay $39 million to Shenzhen Neptunus Interlong Bio-Technique (HKEX: 8329) for the 51% of their JV that it does not already own (see story). The JV was established with the goal of supplying seasonal flu, pre-pandemic and pandemic flu vaccines for China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Zhejiang Conba Pharma (SHA: 600572) announced plans for a JV with a development stage oncology startup, American Kite Pharma (see story). The JV, which will be located in Hangzhou, will be funded with $1.2 million of initial capital. Of that, 70% will come from Conba and the rest from Kite. Kite is developing cancer immunotherapies using alpha fetoproteins (AFPs), with an initial indication of kidney cancer.

LabCorp of the US (NYSE: LH) will acquire Clearstone Central Laboratories, a privately held central laboratory services company that will extend LabCorp’s reach into China and the greater Asia-Pacific region (see story). Clearstone has a facility in Beijing and another in Singapore in addition to labs in Canada and Europe. Clearstone is headquartered in Toronto. LabCorp, which reported revenues of $5 billion in 2010, offers a broad list of tests that range from routine blood analyses to reproductive genetics to DNA sequencing.

PKU Southwest Synthetic Pharma (SHE: 000788) received regulatory permission to issue 9.4 million shares to acquire the remainder of a subsidiary, Beijing Pharmaceutical (see story). Both companies are affiliated with the Founders Group, a high-tech conglomerate formed by Peking University in 1986. It is thought that Founders Group is gradually moving all of its pharmaceutical assets into PKU Southwest. Beijing Pharmaceutical is a drug distribution company based in Beijing.

Unigene Laboratories (OTCBB: UGNE), a US company that develops and makes peptide-based drugs, has closed out an eleven-year-old China JV (see story). Unigene owned a 45% stake in Unigene Biotechnology Co., Ltd., which it will sell to its partner China Pharmaceutical Group Limited for $1 million, the amount of its original investment. In Q1 of 2011, Unigene recorded a $300,000 loss from the JV.

Company News


ClinTec International, a privately held clinical stage CRO based in Glasgow, Scotland, has opened four fully registered offices in China, Singapore and Thailand (see story). Over the next three months, the company, which is bulking up its presence in Asia Pacific, will open additional offices in South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia. ClinTec stresses the importance of emerging markets to its business, declaring it has operations in a UN-like 80 countries. ClinTec claims special expertise in oncology trials.

Shandong Luoxin Pharmacy (HKEX: 8058) announced it would begin developing cefazedone sodium and cefazedone sodium for injection (see story). Cefazedone is a narrow spectrum antibiotic that is used to treat enterococci, a gram-positive cocci occurring in the digestive tract. Luoxin says it will be the first manufacturer of the product in China.
http://www.chinabiotoday.com/articles/20110613

Licensing Deals


Nycomed, the Swiss biopharma, will market a Roche (VS: ROG) osteoporosis treatment, Bonviva, in China and other Asia Pacific markets (see story). Bonviva, a bisphosphonate, will be added to Nycomed’s existing portfolio of osteoporosis products. Nycomed, the 28th largest biopharma in the world, generates the highest proportion of its revenues from developing countries of any large or medium-sized global pharma – an unusual metric – though China is not one of its top five markets.

Trials and Approvals

Rhei Pharma was told by the SFDA that its application for China marketing of MuGard™ is complete. MuGard is an oral mouthwash that protects against oral mucositis, a side effect of chemotherapy and radiation treatment (see story). Rhei expects final marketing approval of the product in the second half of the year. MuGard was developed by Access Pharma (OTCBB: ACCP) in the US. Rhei, a privately held company based in Hong Kong, also has offices in China and the US. Rhei specializes in bringing western drugs to China.

Disclosure: none.

 

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